Res Publica Public services in two cities in the Dutch Republic, 1612-1669 Claartje Rasterhoff Utrecht University, March 2008 [email protected] Introduction1 On the 23rd of January 1579, in the great chapter house of the cathedral in Utrecht, the treaty of the Union of Utrecht was signed. This treaty would come to provide the basis for the Republic of the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands (hereafter: the Dutch Republic). The new state consisted of the provinces that had formally united themselves in the war against Spain. One of the key features of the Dutch Republic was the relatively small number of public duties that was assigned to the central government.2 Provinces and cities had fiercely defended their privileges in the Revolt and the continuation of relatively high levels of urban autonomy in the Republic reflect a successful outcome. In retrospective, it would take the newfound Republic only a few years to embark on a ride of success that would later be called the Dutch Golden Age. This short century of impressive economic and demographic growth brought the Dutch Republic worldwide fame. In this paper the question is raised how this demographic growth influenced the provision of urban public services.3 1 A previous version of this article was presented at the conference “Civil Society and Public Services in Early Modern Europe”, Leiden, 30 November & 1 December 2007. The paper is an excerpt of C. Rasterhoff. Res Publica. A comparison of public services in two cities in the Dutch Republic, 1612- 1669 (University Utrecht: master thesis, June, 2007). 2 J.H. Israel. The Dutch Republic. Its Rise, Greatness and Fall (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995): 276-7. Israel states that, although the central government was weak in comparison with other early modern European states, the States General were involved in more than international relations and defense, namely also in shipping regulation, church affairs and colonial expansion. 3 By public services we mean services that are available to all who wish to use it. We include all public services that were available in the early modern city, regardless of the nature of the provider. The reason for this is that is hard, if not impossible, to draw boundaries between private and public involvement in early modern society. Theory on public services is not discussed here, but for further inquiries see for example: P.A. Samuelson. “The pure theory of public expenditures” The Review of Economic and Statistics 36 (1954); M. Olson. The logic of collective action (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1971); S. Pinch. Cities and services: the geography of collective consumption (Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985). 1 Developments in specific types of services, like poor relief and infrastructure, have been studied extensively, but studies on public services as a whole are few. Furthermore, when public tasks are studied it is more often than not in the light of state formation, bureaucratization, and concepts of citizenship or religious reformation.4 It is undeniable that these approaches bear crucial fruits, but they also tend to be rather deterministic. By using a variable that is less loaded with deterministic connotations and by only looking at expenditure levels, we aim to look at public tasks as a subject in itself. This is not to say that the questions in this study cannot be related to a broader context or larger questions. In fact, the question of what determines the size of demand for, and the size of supply of public services in a certain place at a certain time, is what inspired this study.. A better understanding of the historical developments in the field of public services can help to address the role of public services in the total economy, the role of the state and to identify determining factors in service provision. Economic historian Peter H. Lindert has addressed the causes and effects of the nineteenth and twentieth century rises in social spending through econometric analysis of per capita expenditure.5 In his argument, the main determinants of the rise in social spending turn out to be factors that influence the size of supply. Motivations of those who are able to speak up politically, shape policymaking and determine governmental expenditure levels. Accordingly, the extension of voting rights caused changes in the size of social spending. His conclusions raise new questions about the role of demand-related and supply-related variables and about the relation between supply and demand. Before we can start to consider multivariate models to answer the larger question formulated above, we need to take a the individual causal workings of 4 See on the influence of the Reformation for example: O.P. Grell and A. Cunningham. Health Care and Poor Relief in Protestant Europe, 1500-1700 (New York: Routledge, 1997); and by the same authors, Health Care and Poor Relief in Counter Reformation Europe (New York: Routledge, 1999); T. Fehler. Poor relief and protestantism: the evolution of welfare in sixteenth-century Emden (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999); R. Jutte. Poverty and deviance in Early Modern Europe, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994). For more on the process on bureaucratization in the Netherlands see: J.C.N. Raadschelders. Plaatselijke bestuurlijke ontwikkelingen 1600-1980. Een historisch- bestuurlijke onderzoek in vier Noord-Hollandse gemeenten (Den Haag: VGN-Uitgeverij, 1990); P. Wagenaar. ‘Dat de regeringe niet en bestaet by het corpus van de magistrate van Den Haag alleen’. De sociëteit van ‘s Gravenhage (1587-1802). Een onderzoek naar bureaucratisering (Hilversum: Verloren, 1999); A. van Braam. “Bureaucratiseringsgraad van de plaatselijke bestuursorganisatie van Westzaandam ten tijde van de Republiek” Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 90 (1977), 457-484. 5 P.H. Lindert. Growing public: social spending and economic growth since the eighteenth century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004). 2 different variables. Therefore we limit ourselves here to one explanatory variable: population growth. We will look at two Dutch cities, Utrecht and Leiden, between 1612 and 1669. In this period Leiden grew rapidly and Utrecht moderately. To assess developments in the provision and organization of services we look at quantitative data: population sizes and expenditure levels. We compare urban expenditure levels in two years for both cities. These years are chosen on the basis of two criteria: they indicate a specific stage in population growth, and there are no major disruptions in city life, such as epidemics or political problems. The last year reflects the zenith of economic and demographic growth in the Republic. Early modern urban accounts offer a wide range of expenses, often categorized into different subjects. These early modern categories do not always serve the purposes of present day historians. In this study the categorization of urban expenditure of Dutch historian A. van Braam proved useful.6 Van Braam used the categories to study expenditure on public servants, rather than to study all public expenses. He did not include urban expenditure on services that were provided by individuals who were not, by his definitions, public servants. It can be argued, however, that early modern cities on many occasions financially supported other institutions that provided public services. An example of this is the governmental funding of the civic militia. By adding two categories: enforcement of law and order and a ‘rest’ category, we arrive at nine categories in which annual governmental expenditure can be subdivided.7 The urban government was not the only provider of public services. Church, corporations and private individuals played their parts too. This study into public services attempts to investigate developments of different actors in the domain of public services. They are divided into three categories: the city, semi-governmental institutions and non-governmental institutions. Because most of these institutions had their own specific functions, the the abovementioned categorization is not used to break down their annual expenditure. For semi-governmental and non-governmental institutions we use an over-time comparison of total expenditure levels. This part of 6 Van Braam, 457-484. 7 The nine categories are: 1. General administration, justice and finance, 2. Enforcement law and order, 3. Infrastructure, 4. Garbage, sewage, fire-safety, public lightning, 5. Supervision of market goods and trading, 6. Social care,. 7. Public worship, 8. Education, 9. Other (In the last category all payments that were unspecified or did not fit into the above categories, are included). 3 the study helps to gain insight in the share and function of the different institutional categories in the total urban domain of services. Before we look at the data, we will shortly discuss the development of public services before the seventeenth century in the light of population growth and urbanization. As urbanization progressed from the twelfth century, cities took up more responsibilities and more urban public institutions developed. The range of public services was extended under pressure of population growth and consequent urbanization. In the late Middle Ages cities grew larger and services came to be provided on a larger scale.8 Shifts in the allocation of provision of services occurred, often, but not by definition, between local governments and churches. The sixteenth century brought about changes in the allocation of public responsibilities. Public debate reflects the reevaluation of public responsibilities. The trend towards more local government responsibility is clearly discernable even in the decades before the Reformation.9 Below we will see how demographic developments in the seventeenth century in Leiden and Utrecht influenced the development of public services in terms of scale (did existing services expand?), scope (were new types of services installed?) and supervision (did the allocation of responsibilities change?). Leiden and Utrecht Let us first look at the larger urban context of both cities. Leiden was blessed and scarred by industry as early as the fourteenth century.